By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
NASA has unveiled the first high-resolution images of Earth captured by the Artemis II astronauts as they begin their journey to the Moon.
Mission commander, Reid Wiseman, snapped the photos shortly after a crucial engine burn placed the Orion spacecraft on its outbound path.
One of the images, titled “Hello, World,” which was shared on Friday, shows the Atlantic Ocean in a deep, glassy blue, framed by a thin atmospheric glow and green auroras swirling over both poles.
The planet appears inverted from the crew’s vantage point, with sections of Africa, Europe, and South America clearly visible.
The photographs were taken moments after the trans-lunar injection burn, which sent Orion out of Earth’s orbit and toward the Moon.
The spacecraft is now on a looping trajectory around the far side of the Moon, the first time humans have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit since 1972.
The crew is expected to fly past the Moon on April 6 and return home on April 10.
Artemis II carries four astronauts, three from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency, marking the first human mission to the Moon in more than 50 years.
The team includes Wiseman; pilot Victor Glover; mission specialist Christina Koch; and Jeremy Hansen, who makes history as the first Canadian astronaut to join a lunar mission.
Credit: X | NASA
NASA also released additional images taken from the Orion capsule.
In one, the line dividing night and day, known as the terminator, cuts cleanly across Earth, a reminder of the shared world beneath the crew’s distant view.
Credit: X | NASA
Another image reveals the electric grid of human activity glowing across the planet, with sunlight illuminating the lower right edge.
Although many in the United States were turning in for the night on April 2, the crew was just completing their trans-lunar injection burn, officially setting them on course for the Moon.